On Saturday, July 22, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested IAS officer Ranu Sahu in Chattisgarh in connection with the coal levy scam. The arrested civil servant is posted in the state agriculture department. The arrest came after ED conducted raids at her premise on Friday.
ED counsel Saurabh Pandey said that “Ranu Sahu was arrested for her involvement with an alleged coal levy case, and she was produced in a court hearing Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) cases here to seek her custody.”
Advocate Pandey added that IAS Ranu Sahu has been remanded in three-day ED custody. ED has provisionally attached Sahu’s property worth Rs 5.52 crores.
Meanwhile, Sahu’s counsel Faizal Rizvi termed the grounds of her arrest as “imaginary” adding his client has been arrested despite cooperating in the probe.
It is notable that Ranu Sahu is the state’s second IAS officer to be arrested in the matter. Last year, 2009 batch IAS Sameer Vishnoi was arrested after he and his wife were found to be in possession of Rs 47 Lacs of unaccounted cash and Gold jewellery of 4 kg.
Sahu, a Chhattisgarh-cadre IAS officer from the 2010 batch had previously served as a collector for the coal-rich districts of Korba and Raigarh.
The ED raided 15 sites across the state earlier this week, including Sahu’s residence in Raipur, in what agency sources claimed was a new case. The agency also raided Congress Treasurer Ram Gopal Agrawal’s residence. The ED has also raided the homes of bureaucrats, lawmakers and business owners in connection with two scams involving the coal levy and the liquor sales.
The ED had previously stated that the illegal coal levy scam involved a cartel of bureaucrats, businessmen, middlemen, and politicians extorting over Rs 25 per tonne of coal moved throughout the state, with the scam estimated to be worth over Rs 800 crore.
In February this year, the Enforcement Directorate filed a second chargesheet in the case at Raipur PMLA court. The ED chargesheet stated that a Chhattisgarh civil services officer Saumya Chaurasia, then employed as deputy secretary to CM Bhupesh Baghel, is the suspected key individual in creating the syndicate led by the main accused Suryakant Tiwari and that she directly obtained profits of crime to the tune of more than Rs 30 crore.